


Together

by piaffe417



Series: Heartbeats [1]
Category: Blood & Treasure (TV)
Genre: Danny rocks a blazer, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Post Episode: s01e09 The Shadow of Projekt Athena, Strudel is discussed once more, post ep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-29 21:07:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20088781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piaffe417/pseuds/piaffe417
Summary: “It goes without saying, of course, that thieves don't want to be found by FBI agents to begin with, but it goes deeper with Danny and Lexi. He’s somehow always possessed an innate ability to read the parts of her that she tries hardest to close off. No other single living being can break through her carefully constructed barriers, but Danny shreds the walls like they’re flimsy paper.”A post-ep for the kiss in S1 Episode 9. (Spoilers for all episodes before.)





	Together

_Gold on your fingertips_  
_Fingertips against my cheek_  
_Gold leaf across your lips_  
_Kiss me until I can't speak_ ~ Billie Eilish “Hostage”

She kisses him for the first time in Rome. The first _real_ time, the first kiss that is concrete and not merely of the moment.

Fabi’s been dead less than a day and Lexi’s possessed the new and perplexing information about her mother only slightly longer. The weight of these things - combined with the seemingly never-ending search for Cleopatra and near loss of Danny in Canada - leaves her at loose ends and wanting to be anywhere (_anywhere_) but inside Chuck’s overly-Americanized (yet somehow completely constricting) flat. She can’t think there. It’s an odd accumulation of religious icons, baseball memorabilia, snack food, and a very specific set of restrictions he expects her to adhere to whether he’s there or not.

Restrictions and Lexi aren’t friends by nature, so when her breath begins to ball in her throat, she leaves. She doesn’t tell Danny where she’s going because she doesn’t feel like getting into the midst of a conversation when she feels this way. She doesn’t have the words for it and anyway, it won’t matter.

Danny always knows exactly where to find her.

He’s annoying like that. Always has been. That whole FBI bloodhound-on-a-scent quality he possesses might be charming to others and was certainly once a job attribute, but as traits go, Lexi ranks it right up there with his terrible taste in jokes and hats.

It goes without saying, of course, that thieves don't want to be found by FBI agents to begin with, but it goes deeper with Danny and Lexi. He’s somehow always possessed an innate ability to read the parts of her that she tries hardest to close off. No other single living being can break through her carefully constructed barriers, but Danny shreds the walls like they’re flimsy paper.

And then he has the audacity (the completely American _audacity_) to show up where she least wants him to. (Of course, he also manages to be there when she wants him to be too, which is perhaps the reason she ultimately finds his tenacity endearing in the end. Her occasional outbursts to the contrary are mere subterfuge to help maintain balance.)

When he finds her on the bridge this particular cool Roman night, it isn’t as though she’s attempting to hide, however. She’s directly under a street lamp on a popular viewing spot mere steps from the Vatican – it isn’t exactly a case that requires Sherlock Holmes to crack. And despite her mood, it’s a relief to recognize his footsteps on the stones, steps she’d recognize even if she were blindfolded.

He’s here. Danny’s here. _Her_ Danny.

Danny is warm, Danny is alive, and Danny is _here_ with _her_. The Danny who almost died and left her just like everyone else she’s ever loved is _here_ and she’s chagrined to admit to herself (at last) that her feelings for him are that strong and that clear:

She loves him.

It’s simple.

Yet with everything that happened with her dad and Farouk and the wave of anger that overwhelmed their relationship early on, it wasn’t until he called her into the middle of this whole convoluted Cleopatra mess that she really took the time to take stock of all things Danny McNamara (blue blazers and Oxford shirts and all). And now she’s clear-headed on the matter (_finally_) because yesterday she and Danny went in search of an old Nazi and everything went wrong.

Everything went wrong and Fabi died but somehow she’s come out of the crisis firm in the knowledge that she’s in love with Danny McNamara. It’s so clear to her now that she shudders to think that she nearly had to lose him to (_finally_) admit it to herself.

“We go in without a plan, we get Danny killed,” were Fabi’s words as she prepared to storm the barn where he was being held.

“Danny’s already being killed,” she fumed back, the sharp pang of dread in her heart and stomach spreading at the sounds of torture coming from the other side of the wall.

There was no plan, no escape route, and no self-awareness in her then, just a single-minded drive to get to Danny, get to a place where she could lock eyes with him and know he wasn’t about to become the latest loss in her life. Not Danny. Not now. Not ever. Even if it meant sacrificing herself, she would not let him suffer, could not let him die hunting a relic that may well be long gone already. No treasure on earth – not even Cleopatra herself – was worth such sacrifice.

Danny and a jumble of questions that race through her mind on a loop are the only things she has in the world right now, and that’s why the kiss on the bridge is suddenly real in a way its predecessors haven’t been.

It begins butterfly soft, his lips tentative on hers at first - probably because they agreed a few days ago (days which now reside in a different lifetime altogether) that having a physical relationship isn’t the best choice. But that was in Casablanca. Casablanca came before Canada. Casablanca ended with him mad and her madder, but the events of Canada and loss of Fabi have changed the game. Lexi’s whole life was up-ended in a few gasped sentences from Fabi’s lips and now she and Danny are in sync again.

It was Danny who first recognized Fabi was gone. His futile hands failed to staunch the flow of blood and he felt the pulse stop even before the last breath slipped silently from Fabi’s lungs. Lexi’s mind vehemently denied what she witnessed, but even if she hadn’t seen Fabi’s face go slack, she would have known he was gone from the look in Danny’s eyes. His expression fell on her and she swallowed hard when she recognized the same look from the day her father was killed, the echo of it ringing and mingling with the feeling of Fabi still warm beneath her hands. Then came the press of Danny’s lips onto her forehead and she wondered if the only reason her heart kept beating was because it felt Danny’s and mimicked its regular rhythm.

She craved Danny’s love in that moment - craved it and feared it the same way she craves and fears it on a bridge in Rome several hours and one plane ride later. Danny can’t argue against her point about losing loved ones because he’s seen it happen twice now. He very nearly joined the tally himself – an unthinkable tragedy.

So he doesn’t argue when she says it aloud. Instead, he softly says, “Everybody dies, Lex.”

“The people closest to me die too soon,” she reiterates tearfully, a pointed warning meant to catch his attention and push him back to a safe distance, though what she wants most (desires from within the deepest part of herself) is for him to stay. Forever.

It hurts him to see her suffer, she knows. But he’s Danny McNamara and of _course_ he has an answer for her dire statement and of _course_ he also happens to have Fabi’s medallion from the Brotherhood to place in her palm as a promise, a talisman.

He vows there will be answers and she asks, “But what if the answers I get just make everything more complicated?”

_Seriously, what’s a girl got to do to go back to her cozy life as a master thief?!_

But Danny has answers for that too, in that earnest, American way of his and he almost vibrates with feeling when he tells her, “Whatever happens, we’ll get through it together.”

She understands the veracity of his words when she looks him in the eye, then surprises herself when she agrees: “I know.”

She does know. She knows from curling into him to keep warm during cold desert nights and also on one long night handcuffed to a hard police bench. She knows from running into or away from danger by his side these last few weeks. She knows because he’s Danny-_freaking_-McNamara. He’s always there to exchange sarcastic comments with her about strudel or bounce ideas off or tease or flirt or kiss...

Kiss.

She hesitates at first, understanding that this kiss will take them in a different direction than they’ve traveled before. Is it wise? Should they stop while they’re ahead? But Danny doesn’t waver, his lips landing gently on hers, careful not to assume or offend. (_Danny McNamara in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen!_) But her heart knows what it wants – what it’s always wanted - and she kisses him back, her hands sliding slowly to his shoulders over the navy blazer she normally hates because it makes him look like a nerdy university professor with dad jokes for days.

_Damn him for making dad jokes and a blue blazer so sexy. Damn him to hell._

In the past, such a kiss would be but preamble. Not only would they be headed for the nearest bed, but past Lexi would also determine how the heat of the moment could benefit her and move accordingly. She might slide her hand casually down his back until it reached his hip in a blatantly suggestive manner, or else release a breathy sigh at the back of her throat to keep him on the hook for later. And sure he’s caught onto those motives in the past, but he quite happily went along for the ride on nearly every occasion because the cat and mouse game has been half the fun for two such equally-matched players.

_Oh how equally matched they are. In so many ways._

There’s a responsibility that comes with such a partnership, however, and Lexi feels for the first time its true weight as the kiss breaks up. Surprisingly, it isn’t the awkward burden she once expected it to be now that she shares it with him, though. And Danny too must understand because he doesn’t try to fill the silence for once; he simply folds Lexi into him in a gesture that is at once protective and affectionate. It must speak volumes to him, then, that she not only allows this, but leans in, her head coming to rest on his shoulder in a move that feels more like a homecoming than she expects. Suddenly she is afraid that one kiss has become too big and too symbolic in a time when she (and they) both need to focus on what’s to come.

“Did you say something about a restaurant a minute ago?” she finally asks, an unmasked effort to deflect some of her feelings. She doesn’t move out of from his embrace, however.

“I did.” The reply rumbles out of his chest and he gives her shoulders a quick squeeze. “You hungry?”

“I could eat,” she replies, finally looking up to meet his gaze and finding comfort in what she sees reflected back.

He kisses her forehead and a pregnant pause follows that makes her smile before he can even draw breath to say what she knows is coming: “I think you probably should’ve eaten more crackers before we left for Poland.”

“That was an _appetizer_ – I want a meal, McNamara,” she shoots back as he begins to stroll them slowly in the direction of Chuck’s recommended restaurant, hip to hip.

“Then it’s a meal you shall have,” he says gallantly. A few moments later, he asks, “Is it weird that I also kind of want strudel?”

She laughs out loud this time. “We’re in the middle of Rome, Danny – where are you going to find strudel?”

He shrugs. “No idea.”

She swallows down the lump that causes her voice to catch in her throat: “Tell you what – after dinner, we can search together.”

**Author's Note:**

> If I’m being honest with myself and the world, I figured I was done having the time and brain space to write anything not work-related (last fic was in 2016), but I have to say, this show has been a pleasant summer surprise and it’s sparked the muse. The show’s writing hasn’t been completely flawless in the first season, but the characters are fun to play with (I put them back when I finished, promise!) and the door is open to color outside the lines a little bit. 
> 
> Any mistakes in geography or storyline from the episode are mine (they fly around the world a LOT, people - it’s hard to keep up!); some minor tweaks are artistic license.


End file.
